1 12 MEMOIR OF DR. DALTOX, AND 



from being corporeal, into a spirituality, and it is this water 

 which turns the bodies or corporeal substance into a white 

 vapour, which is a soul that is whiteness itself, subtle, hot, 

 and full of fire." 



Here is an attempt to separate chemical action from 

 mechanical. " It appears then that this composition is not a 

 work of the hands, but a change of the natures; because 

 nature dissolves and joins itself, sublimes and lifts itself up." 

 The nature of the treatises which he studied is seen in a 

 quotation of his own, "It is also the most acrid vinegar, 

 concerning which an ancient philosopher has said, I besought 

 the Lord and he shewed me a pure clear water, which I knew 

 to be the pure vinegar, altering, penetrating, and digesting. 

 I say a penetrating vinegar, and the moving instrument for 

 putrefying, resolving and reducing gold or silver into their 

 prima materia or first matter." * 



That the chief aim was this originally metaphysical idea of 

 matter, we see also as late as 1691, in the Second Aphorism 

 of " Baron Urbiger," whose more modern style has helped him 

 to a more condensed expression. " An indeterminate matter 

 being the beginning of all metals and minerals, it follows, that 

 as soon as any one shall be so happy as to know and conceive 

 it, he shall easily comprehend also their natures, qualities, and 

 properties." " It is found every where, at all times, and only 

 by our science." 



A favourite mode of representing chemical action, was by 

 the analogies in the growing of plants and animals. Zosimus 

 says it is the (Hydrargyrum) water-silver, the male-female 

 principle, the principle always escaping constant in its pro- 

 perties. The same idea proceeded forward, and in 1409, 

 Nicholas Flamel says, " minerals taken out of the earth may 

 be changed if beforehand they be spiritualized, and reduced 

 into their sulphureous and argent-vive nature, which are the 



* Idem. The Secret Book of Artephius. 



